26dec11
Conference South
Westleigh Park, Havant
att. 938
Take 1: Boxing Day football is great. It allows those of our persuasion to get out from beneath the hillocks of wrapping paper, tear the party popper streamers off the arms of our spectacles and be amongst our brethren full of festive cheer.
Take 2: Boxing Day football is awful. Hanging over the gifting and joy of the previous day like the sword of Damocles, as potential humiliation at the hands of your local rivals threatens to ruin Christmas like a naughty young cousin having a wee in the turkey baster.
Today was take 3. Two bald men in a ‘best bouffant’ contest - neither contender looking as though they had it about them to win the thing. It was summin’ to do wannit but, y’know, bleh.
Of course, I’d have probably taken a point before kick-off what with Eastleigh recently sashaying about like West Coast rappers, all gold teeth and fur waistcoats. With new investment and new faces in the boardroom as well as on the pitch, optimism is currently blowing through their club like a flatulent Nan bursting with sprouts.
I know many of you may be of the opinion that you cannot polish a turd but you CAN roll it in glitter, and thus Eastleigh might well sparkle for a bit before it gets to the almost inevitable ‘unpaid creditors’ stage. As such I was a little concerned that we might be early doors recipients of them flexing their new found financial muscle. However at this stage, it seems as though it’s going to take a lot more glitter for them to cover up what their season’s been like at its core.
That said, we’ve been very patchy in the glitter sense too. A recent away win brought the cooling pie of confidence within nostril range, but generally we never really know when our next good meal is likely to arrive. Here against Eastleigh, we had our chances but were wasteful, chances being shanked, quacked, zormed and flumped.
Leaving our most obvious goal scorer on the bench until the second period, whilst playing just one man up front, at home, was not the kind of statement of intent that suggested ‘Take 1’ on Boxing Day football (see above) was likely to be troubling us.
So, like I say, we had chances, so did they including the missing of what appeared to be a sitter. So, as a Boxing Day derby between local rivals, a classic of the genre it was not. It did not really live up to the billing, not like contests between us have done in the past (see links below).
That said, the game did lively up itself in the last quarter of an hour. Firstly, after Ollie Palmer (finally brought on to create a, get this, 4-4-2 formation) was felled by a tough but, frankly, fair challenge, our Lee Peacock sought retribution with a tackle that displayed more studs than a Fire Brigade charity calendar. Happily for us, he escaped with a yellow.
Not long after, Eastleigh skipper Tom Jordan also saw yellow in the 86th minute. For the second time in the afternoon. Naturally players that have left us in a protracted tapping-up saga claiming grass to be far greener in Eastleigh are rarely given a warm welcome when they return to Westleigh Park. However, they can usually be guaranteed a boisterous send off should they end up staring down a red card and thus we had our ‘victory’, albeit small and imperfectly formed, given that we failed to capitalise on our one man advantage.
It was though, at least, approaching some sort of valedictory entertainment. Minutes 1 - 86 seemed more like 40 days in the Judean desert, while the last five minutes plus injury time flew by like a Harrier jet.
Part two occurs next week, on New Year’s Day. Considering the crowd, and possibly a number of the players, will be staring through the heavy eyelids of Hogmanay, another afternoon doze of a game seems a safe bet. Which, given the number of poor calls I’ve made regarding what’s likely to happen this season, means it’ll be 4 each or summat.
Previously, on Dub Steps
30aug10: Havant & Waterlooville 2 Eastleigh 2
03oct09: Havant & Waterlooville 2 Eastleigh 2
25apr09: Havant & Waterlooville 2 Eastleigh 2
29nov08: Eastleigh 2 Havant & Waterlooville 0
01apr08: Eastleigh 1 Havant & Waterlooville 1
22dec07: Havant & Waterlooville 1 Eastleigh 0
09apr07: Havant & Waterlooville 1 Eastleigh 1
Monday, 26 December 2011
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Tonbridge Angels 1 Havant & Waterlooville 2
17dec11
Conference South
Longmead Stadium, Tonbridge
att. 599
Any readers whose only source of H&Dub information is this site might have a skewed view of how the last few weeks have been. It has been six weeks since this site has managed to observe a fixture, and that was a barrelling 5-0 win. You join us again after a month and a half, and a workmanlike away win is here to greet you. You might be of the mind that the good times have been rollin’ down at Westleigh Park. Balloons, tables full of empty bottles, waking up on the local recreation ground wearing only a pink stetson and a smile, that kind of thing.
However, after our nine goals in 135 minutes in our late-October Fest, where a second half comeback against Dorchester resulted in a 4-2 win, followed up by the aforementioned ‘Lady Godiva’ against Farnborough, we then proceeded to score only two more in the subsequent six games. That run included two FA Trophy tussles against a post-financial meltdown Weymouth. Now languishing in the bottom half of the Southern League, a division beneath, they nonetheless scored two goals to our nil in the replay at our gaff.
Aside from those, our league performances have included a 3-0 dump down at runaway league leaders Woking and three draws (a scoreless against Eastbourne, and two one-eachers at Staines and at home to Weston-super-Mare).
So you haven’t missed any further wins, unless you count the 2-0 victory at Wessex Leaguers Blackfield & Langley in the Hampshire Senior Cup. And I don’t. Although we have lost those kind of fixtures before, as Shaun Gale takes the county competition about as seriously as suggestions that he should wear nothing but a comedy wig and a onesie in the dugout.
Still, that would be a better option than the tar and feathers that quite a few of our supporters would like to see him wearing. Many feel, and have felt for some time, that if this club has any ambition left, that a change in the managerial seat is needed. Of course, that is based on a clear supposition. Do we have any?
Our chairman Derek Pope appears to be quite stubborn in this matter though. Shaun Gale is, and will be, manager. End of conversation. Indeed, in the recent ‘Biggest Show of Loyalty of All-Time’ awards, Derek beat Greyfriars Bobby into a clear second place. In a way I kind of admire this kind of thing in the modern world of football, even though the grey sludge of apathy has been smearing itself across our club for some time now, with no clear end in sight.
However, every now and then we’ll get a decent result and that, despite us being entrenched in 15th place for the last month, keeps things sputtering along like a faithful old motor that can get you to the shops, but you wouldn’t trust on anything resembling an incline. If metaphors aren’t your bag, let’s just say you can’t see us putting a decent run together anytime soon. Which is a problem considering our next two games are against our bitter local rivals Eastleigh who’s top brass are bouncing around like toddlers on too much Haribo, crowing about new investment and beginning to introduce new faces as regularly as Marti Caine in the late 80’s.
Still, better we go into those games with an away win rather than not. If we can defend as we did at the end of the second half, then we might well be alright, if it’s more like the start of the second half, then we may struggle.
Neither we nor Tonbridge ever took this game by the horns but of the chances that both sides had, we made the best use, eventually. Tonbridge can rue the striking of the bar in the first half, and a wicked deflection in the second half from a fierce shot that hammered into the hoardings no more than a foot wide of the post. Similarly, we can also regard the fact that Scott Jones, Sammy Igoe and Sam Pearce had close range efforts that were not prepared to mingle socially with the net, as evidence of attacks that came close to bearing fruit.
Happily, our fruit bowl was slightly better stocked than that of the Angels come the final whistle. Ten minutes into the game, Steve Ramsay scored the type of goal (see above) for which he is becoming renowned i.e. one from the edges of the box that doesn’t so much rocket between the posts, as skid at a leisurely pace, as though on a Sunday afternoon duckpond stroll. On this occasion, it took a slight detour off the far post before reaching its desired destination.
It remained even for the rest of the first half, but Tonbridge came out after the break determined and, as is so often the case, we came out to spend a few minutes picking the half-time sandwiches from our teeth. As such it was poor marking that led to the Angels’ equaliser, Tim Olorunda crashing home after the ball was neatly headed down for him three minutes into the second period.
Arguably it was a very similar situation that eventually saw us re-take the lead with ten minutes remaining. Some good work on the flanks eventually saw the ball bobbling around in the six yard box and Ollie Palmer, on as a substitute, used considerable savvy to nibble at the bouncing ball with his forehead and guide it expertly between the panicking defensive bodies.
After this, we were required to defend stoutly, and did so. After we took the lead for the second time, the win was never in any doubt. An ideal confidence boost for the 'we v Eastleigh' panto season.
Now, I try not to worry about goings on at Eastleigh these days. However, a Boxing Day win at Westleigh Park would trump turkey and the trimmings, or chocolate coins in a big sock, as the ideal festive treat.
Conference South
Longmead Stadium, Tonbridge
att. 599
Any readers whose only source of H&Dub information is this site might have a skewed view of how the last few weeks have been. It has been six weeks since this site has managed to observe a fixture, and that was a barrelling 5-0 win. You join us again after a month and a half, and a workmanlike away win is here to greet you. You might be of the mind that the good times have been rollin’ down at Westleigh Park. Balloons, tables full of empty bottles, waking up on the local recreation ground wearing only a pink stetson and a smile, that kind of thing.
However, after our nine goals in 135 minutes in our late-October Fest, where a second half comeback against Dorchester resulted in a 4-2 win, followed up by the aforementioned ‘Lady Godiva’ against Farnborough, we then proceeded to score only two more in the subsequent six games. That run included two FA Trophy tussles against a post-financial meltdown Weymouth. Now languishing in the bottom half of the Southern League, a division beneath, they nonetheless scored two goals to our nil in the replay at our gaff.
Aside from those, our league performances have included a 3-0 dump down at runaway league leaders Woking and three draws (a scoreless against Eastbourne, and two one-eachers at Staines and at home to Weston-super-Mare).
So you haven’t missed any further wins, unless you count the 2-0 victory at Wessex Leaguers Blackfield & Langley in the Hampshire Senior Cup. And I don’t. Although we have lost those kind of fixtures before, as Shaun Gale takes the county competition about as seriously as suggestions that he should wear nothing but a comedy wig and a onesie in the dugout.
Still, that would be a better option than the tar and feathers that quite a few of our supporters would like to see him wearing. Many feel, and have felt for some time, that if this club has any ambition left, that a change in the managerial seat is needed. Of course, that is based on a clear supposition. Do we have any?
Our chairman Derek Pope appears to be quite stubborn in this matter though. Shaun Gale is, and will be, manager. End of conversation. Indeed, in the recent ‘Biggest Show of Loyalty of All-Time’ awards, Derek beat Greyfriars Bobby into a clear second place. In a way I kind of admire this kind of thing in the modern world of football, even though the grey sludge of apathy has been smearing itself across our club for some time now, with no clear end in sight.
However, every now and then we’ll get a decent result and that, despite us being entrenched in 15th place for the last month, keeps things sputtering along like a faithful old motor that can get you to the shops, but you wouldn’t trust on anything resembling an incline. If metaphors aren’t your bag, let’s just say you can’t see us putting a decent run together anytime soon. Which is a problem considering our next two games are against our bitter local rivals Eastleigh who’s top brass are bouncing around like toddlers on too much Haribo, crowing about new investment and beginning to introduce new faces as regularly as Marti Caine in the late 80’s.
Still, better we go into those games with an away win rather than not. If we can defend as we did at the end of the second half, then we might well be alright, if it’s more like the start of the second half, then we may struggle.
Neither we nor Tonbridge ever took this game by the horns but of the chances that both sides had, we made the best use, eventually. Tonbridge can rue the striking of the bar in the first half, and a wicked deflection in the second half from a fierce shot that hammered into the hoardings no more than a foot wide of the post. Similarly, we can also regard the fact that Scott Jones, Sammy Igoe and Sam Pearce had close range efforts that were not prepared to mingle socially with the net, as evidence of attacks that came close to bearing fruit.
Happily, our fruit bowl was slightly better stocked than that of the Angels come the final whistle. Ten minutes into the game, Steve Ramsay scored the type of goal (see above) for which he is becoming renowned i.e. one from the edges of the box that doesn’t so much rocket between the posts, as skid at a leisurely pace, as though on a Sunday afternoon duckpond stroll. On this occasion, it took a slight detour off the far post before reaching its desired destination.
It remained even for the rest of the first half, but Tonbridge came out after the break determined and, as is so often the case, we came out to spend a few minutes picking the half-time sandwiches from our teeth. As such it was poor marking that led to the Angels’ equaliser, Tim Olorunda crashing home after the ball was neatly headed down for him three minutes into the second period.
Arguably it was a very similar situation that eventually saw us re-take the lead with ten minutes remaining. Some good work on the flanks eventually saw the ball bobbling around in the six yard box and Ollie Palmer, on as a substitute, used considerable savvy to nibble at the bouncing ball with his forehead and guide it expertly between the panicking defensive bodies.
After this, we were required to defend stoutly, and did so. After we took the lead for the second time, the win was never in any doubt. An ideal confidence boost for the 'we v Eastleigh' panto season.
Now, I try not to worry about goings on at Eastleigh these days. However, a Boxing Day win at Westleigh Park would trump turkey and the trimmings, or chocolate coins in a big sock, as the ideal festive treat.
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